Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

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Thread: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

  1. #1
    Member tedhur's Avatar
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    Default Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    Hello, just joined the forum and went through the forum. Impressed with all the knowledge here.

    Anyways, I have several Hurco machines which I haven't used for the past few years because my work took me in a different direction than machining parts.

    Now, looks like I will be machining parts again so I went about dusting off the machines to get them ready for use again. I was able to get my KM3P machines up and running, but having issues with my BMC20. BIOS starts up, but having issues running the software from the hard drive.

    When I enter SETUP, I have a choice of 49 hard drive setups. Different setups have different Cyl, Hd, Pre, LZ, Sec, and Size setup. Is there a particular setup I should use, generally speaking, or is it more machine-specific?

    Thanks,

    Ted

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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ...look on the HDD should have the information on Label



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    Thanks, I'll take a look at it.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I took the hard disk out to look for setting info, but couldn't find any. Maybe the problem was, I looked only on the exposed top side. I might try taking the hard disk off the board to look for something resembling setting info on the next try.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ... which favor HDD do you have at the time..Type 47 was common. mid1990s
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hurco-414-0...sAAOSwrzhgXhmP

    and We stayed at a Holyday Inn last night. use Auto Detect in BIOS?

    Last edited by machinehop5; 04-10-2021 at 09:10 PM. Reason: need more backup


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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I've got the Seagate variant. The appearance of the hard disk is slightly different than the one reference in the ebay listing. My board shows 415-0243-001, Rev C, which is exactly the same as shown on the ebay listing. Maybe I'll try Type 47 and see what happens.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    Well, looks like I've figured out the proper hard disk setting. Now, looks like I've got the dreaded security dongle problem.

    My understanding is that Hurco is no longer supporting this issue due to parts obsolescence. I've read on here that one option is to update the processor and getting an updated software. How involved, exactly, is the procedure. Is this something that a layperson can handle? Are there other options?



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ...hunt down the last Owner and get the dongle hopefully or maybe get lucky and the dongle is inside the Cabinets somewhere for safe keeping or loose somewhere in the machine. ..I did see this on ebay but 500usd is pricey or maybe not to fix the machine.
    https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...=0&_odkw=Hurco

    good luck hunting,
    DJ



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    Actually, I've owned this machine for 20+ years now. Just moved away from machining work in general, so the machine sat neglected for a few years. The last time the machine was turned off, it was all running fine. The dongle is still there.

    The last time I talked to anybody at Hurco was probably around 2007. Their service dept and service staffs were top-notch, and always appreciated their high-quality work. I reached out to them again recently, but I was told they no longer service the machine due to parts obsolescence.

    I've got the hard drive set up down, but I still haven't replaced the CMOS battery. Do you think the drained CMOS battery might be causing this security invalid error that I get during startup?



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    oh you have the Dongle...I am not a Hurco type guy (yet)...but, the CMOS battery would be good start. Then, the Parallel Port may need to set differently from default to make the Dongle work correctly in BIOS. Hopefully a Hurco cnczoner will chime in to help soon.

    There maybe more Batterys to replace too...part program store etc.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    To be honest, still haven't figured out where the CMOS battery is at. I have taken all the boards out with the exception of the CPU board, so I'm assuming that's where it's at. Also makes sense that the clock chip should be on the CPU board as a matter of practice.

    I haven't looked in the BIOS to see if I could change the setup of the parallel port yet. I think that's definitely something I should look into.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ...which version of Ultimax Controller is your machine?
    I was reading this Thread below...may help
    https://www.cnczone.com/forums/hurco...batteries.html



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I was just at my shop, so took the CPU board out of the machine to investigate. Not sure exactly as to the version of Ultimax to be honest, but it's probably the earlier variant. Looks like the board has an external battery setup, Rayovac 840 to be exact. I didn't find any Dallas or STMicro type SRAM on the board.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ...no soldering needed. That's good news.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    Just to close this matter, I just wanted to report back that I was able to get the machine up and running again. For anyone interested, here is what I did.

    First, I diagnosed the problem as CMOS battery, in which a dead battery caused all the BIOS setting information to be lost.

    Resolution steps:
    1. My machine was equipped with an external battery type, not SRAM type. The battery I used was Rayovac 840 (or equivalent).
    2. My hard disk didn't have any sticker on the casing that showed the hard disk setup information. What I did was I noted the hard disk brand and model number. I used that information and went on the internet to figure out the common hard disk configuration for that model specific hard disk. Once I found out what it was, I went to BIOS menu to pick the configuration that matched the hard disk.
    3. After doing all the above, what I encountered next was "Security Invalid" message. Turns out that when BIOS lost setting information, LPT1 was disabled. So, at this point, I went into BIOS advanced menu and turned on LPT1.

    Once all the above were done, the machine started right up.

    Thanks for all the help, btw.



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    ...Good to hear you figured out the BIOS settings without having to call a repairman. If, you have more DOS skills might be good time to Clone your HDD for backup. Maybe Hurco had some kind of Backup Program just in case the HDD crashes/dies. Check your Manuals.

    Good Luck,
    DJ



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I was never good with DOS, and I'm really rusty using DOS on top of that, so I have no clue how to clone my hard disk. I do have a full set of floppy disks from Hurco, so that should save me if something happens, but it would be nice if I could clone what I have on the hard disk. I don't think Hurco manuals tell me how to clone hard disk, unfortunately..



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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I would not count on floppies. Restore the contents of hdd from backup image is much easier.
    You need the system with following specification:
    1. Possible to connect two hdd. One is to be cloned, next one to store the image on.
    2. USB boot enabled. Doesn't matter what OS the system run normally, you want to use some specific to run disk cloning ( imaging ) software.
    3. Display and keyboard - these are present on every computer system usually.
    So, you can either try your machinetool panel or take away the hdd and connect it to your PC ( or notebook ).
    Next step follows.



  19. #19
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    Default Re: Hurco BMC-20 Hard drive setup inquiry

    I have a spare Hurco hard disk unit that's out of a machine at the moment, so I may try connecting via the PC method to see if that works. If I'm able to clone the HDD with my spare hard disk, I'll probably try cloning the hard disk that's currently installed in the BMC20.

    The only concern is that the Hurco HDD that I have is IDE, while I think all the computers that I have run Windows 10 with SATA drives. I've done mirroring in the past, but not sure how smooth the process will be with IDE drives with DOS-based programs. Not exactly computer knowledgeable, so it's going to be a trial and error effort.



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